Developers will be incentivized to build affordable housing near transit under new JJJ guidelines

Following the successful package of Measure JJJ last November, L.A.’s Department of City Planning released new guidelines Monday on how the affordable housing initiative will actually work.

Under the new rules, there will be significant incentives provided to entice developers to build affordable housing within a half-mile radius of major transit stops.

They’ll be incentivized to build more affordable units with greater height allowances, reduced parking requirements and increases in the number of permitted units.

The minimum affordable housing requirements to qualify for the incentives will differ depending on the proximity of the project to transit stops.

Developers building projects within 750 feet of a Metro rail station will have to provide the highest levels of affordability — 11 percent of units affordable to tenants making under 30 percent of median income, 15 percent for households making less than 50 percent, or 27 percent for those making less than 80 percent, for instance.

The farther the development is from a transit stop, the fewer affordable units it will need to qualify for the incentives.

More than 64 percent of voters backed Measure JJJ. Projects located outside a half-mile radius of transit hubs will not qualify for the incentives. [Curbed] — Cathaleen Chen